Ashby high-rise developers re-file suit

The Ashby high-rise showed up again in court last week, but this time it was in a different legal venue.

The developers of the wildly controversial real estate project re-filed their petition against the city of Houston in state district court.

“Our arguments need to be made in a different venue in order to be fully considered,” said Matthew Morgan of Buckhead Investment Partners. “Now the focus is on the arbitrary and capricious way we were treated differently than everyone else.”

In February, they filed suit in Harris County court after being denied a permit to build a 23-story residential tower at 1717 Bissonnet near Rice University 11 times.

The city finally approved a permit, but for a building with with fewer living units and less retail space.

The Chronicle reported the story in February:

The legal dispute rests on the city’s application of a driveway location ordinance, last amended in 1968, as the basis for refusing to permit the development. After the initial controversy, city officials worked for months on a new regulatory ordinance before abandoning that effort and applying the driveway ordinance.

City Attorney Arturo Michel vowed to contest the suit, saying Houston applied its laws appropriately to ensure that traffic generated by the development wouldn’t clog nearby streets with traffic. And a neighborhood opposition leader suggested the developers were trying to make money in court that they couldn’t earn in the marketplace.

The new suit is essentially the same, except this time it includes a list other real estate projects that Morgan says received permits using a different set of rules than were applied to the developer.

9 Responses

I haven’t noticed traffic being an issue at any of the other high-rise condos around town. The real traffic problem is on Rice and University in the shopping district with head-in parking logjams all day long and no lights on Morningside.

This looks like a smokescreen to me improvised by the City to cater to some other issues and it isn’t exactly what one would call fair play.

These snobbish property owners are eventually going to lose this thing, despite spending all kinds of money and pulling strings with their connections at city hall. The traffic concerns have always been a canard and it’s about to be exposed.

Sure the developers are trying to “make money” in court – they invested real money in the property and have been financially damaged because the rules of the game were arbitrarily changed in the middle of the process. That’s the whole purpose of having a legal system in the first place, to determine if damages occurred and to remedy those damages if appropriate. Why shouldn’t they go to court and try and recoup some of their losses? It sure looks to me like they have a case.

Too bad they can’t sue the “neighborhood groups” who have been the instigators all along.

Apparently the “right people” weren’t impressed enough with the plans, legal as they were. I hope the developers get some relief for the staggering legal debts they were forced to incur simply because some of the “special” people around the proposed structure didn’t like it.

..I believe they’re sueing for $40 million but their lawsuit also states that they can be compensated in a commisurate manner i.e. issuance of the permit..I love that Houston wildcat never-give-up attitude; i hope this sucker gets built!

To the “I hope they build it so the rich neighbors can shove it” crowd: Be careful what you wish for. The next time a developer wants to build something obnoxious, it could be in your neighborhood. Don’t think you can avoid it by moving out to the suburbs either – look what happened over that low-cost housing proposal out by Katy.

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To the “zoning is the only answer” crowd: You should also be careful what you wish for. Zoning ordinances can become beasts – New York’s is over 3000 pages long – and they don’t always prevent things like the Ashby High Rise.